I'm a proud owner of a 82 Z28

Went and checked out the Z28 and as far as I could tell, it's in real nice shape with 107K. The owner has owned it since it was almost new and it's bone stock original which is rare anymore. It does have some gravel road rash on it but rust free. I didn't heard it run but he told me 2 thousand cash, not much to think about after that so I handed him the cash. It's a charcoal metelic with silver on the bottom and a HO 305 Not really,but I just had to go there ( some will understand ) The plan is sell the 78 T/A to finance the 71 and drive this Camaro till the 71 is finished and maybe sell this one too.

I think I'll be ok, this has been a local car it's whole life and not pampered but not abused either.The bad thing is after running the 305 motor in the dirt a few days ago, now found myself looking at cams , intake and exaust already. Lol Probably won't change any big stuff, it's kind of a survivor. Well, maybe some vortec heads.

Seth

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. C.S.Lewis

I think I'll be ok, this has been a local car it's whole life and not pampered but not abused either.The bad thing is after running the 305 motor in the dirt a few days ago, now found myself looking at cams , intake and exaust already. Lol Probably won't change any big stuff, it's kind of a survivor. Well, maybe some vortec heads.

I think I'll be ok, this has been a local car it's whole life and not pampered but not abused either.The bad thing is after running the 305 motor in the dirt a few days ago, now found myself looking at cams , intake and exaust already. Lol Probably won't change any big stuff, it's kind of a survivor. Well, maybe some vortec heads.

I don't think the 305 Vortecs used the same Ricardo design architecture as the 350 Vortecs. Don't use 350 Vortecs on a 305, the static compression ratio will be in the tank. I don't think the valves will clear the bore anyway.

Looks like it might be a pretty decent car. Sounds like a good plan for the 71, too.

A couple of possible low cost upgrades for 305 heads. Chevy put some decent heads (I know that's an oxymoron when you're talking about a 305) on the 4 barrel 305 truck engines in the mid 80's. I don't remember the casting numbers off the top of my head, but I have a set of them out in the shop. I can check them out and get the numbers if you want. They had 55-58 cc heart shaped chambers. The local stock class dirt guys used them on 350's when they were limited to stock parts and claim rules.

Also, the Corvette aluminum heads had smaller 58 cc chambers and most likely flow better than the parts you have now. Milling would bump the compression a little. The ZZ crate motors used similar heads with a standard old style intake bolt pattern.

I built a 305 for my son's truck and used flat top pistons, the "good" truck heads that I pocket ported, a cam from Summit that was similar to a 300 HP 327, Performer RPM manifold and a 500 cfm Edelbrock carb. I also recurved the HEI distributor. With headers and good exhaust, that engine ran much better than you would think and still got decent mileage. He wanted a 350, but the 305 and the intake was donated to him by a good family friend. After he got out on his own, he appreciated the economy of the little 305.

Tech
That's good info, enough to talk me into leaving the heads on. I really don't want to hot rod it but just wake it up a bit. In 1982 Chevy's secondary flagship car was turning 145 HP , that was the high performance model I really would like to leave in in an un molested condition as much as possible, not that if makes a difference right now, but maybe in 10 yrs it will. From the little research I found it has a 400 cfm Q jet and I would like to leave that on as well or have someone teach me how to raise the cfm on it if necessary if stuff is changed. Maybe a cam change, intake and exhaust could gain some but not sure it's worth the effort. When I was a kid in 1988, my brother rebuilt a 83 Z28 in auto body school and I thought that was the most awesome car ever. I asked him about that and how I thought that thing had lots of power then. He said that one had the HO 305 which was the L69 option, that one did have power for the day. He was telling me he raced his buddy's 76 Camaro with a 400 in it and they were side by side the whole way.I remember him burning out sideways after church one Sunday that leaves an impression on a kid

Edit- Not that it matters or I care a lot but just snooping around on the 83 HO. Most say they came only with a 5 speed manual, my brother's was a 4 speed auto. That means his car was extremely rare or not a L69. If it wasn't a L69 but just a regular Z28 and it kept up with a 400 sbc, that means his buddy could have used some help building a 400

Last edited by 53 Chevy5; 08-20-2017 at 08:55 PM.

Seth

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. C.S.Lewis

Looks like it might be a pretty decent car. Sounds like a good plan for the 71, too.

A couple of possible low cost upgrades for 305 heads. Chevy put some decent heads (I know that's an oxymoron when you're talking about a 305) on the 4 barrel 305 truck engines in the mid 80's. I don't remember the casting numbers off the top of my head, but I have a set of them out in the shop. I can check them out and get the numbers if you want. They had 55-58 cc heart shaped chambers. The local stock class dirt guys used them on 350's when they were limited to stock parts and claim rules.

Also, the Corvette aluminum heads had smaller 58 cc chambers and most likely flow better than the parts you have now. Milling would bump the compression a little. The ZZ crate motors used similar heads with a standard old style intake bolt pattern.

I built a 305 for my son's truck and used flat top pistons, the "good" truck heads that I pocket ported, a cam from Summit that was similar to a 300 HP 327, Performer RPM manifold and a 500 cfm Edelbrock carb. I also recurved the HEI distributor. With headers and good exhaust, that engine ran much better than you would think and still got decent mileage. He wanted a 350, but the 305 and the intake was donated to him by a good family friend. After he got out on his own, he appreciated the economy of the little 305.

You can check that out in your leisure time if you like, it would be good to know. There's no hurry on this, I have to get my boys Trailblazer going, then I a G john Deere tractor to get ready to sell and then bring back my neglected T/A back to its former glory to sell it. I can't find a good price calculator for that though 1978, t tops, 4 speed. I would give the whole car about a 7-8 on the good scale.

Seth

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. C.S.Lewis

I bought an 82 Z/28 brand new...grey with grey cloth interior and a stick shift. It was
a 305HO motor....OK driver to work but a real performance dog. A year to the day after
purchasing it, I took it for a drive and stopped at the Chev store where I bought it.
They offered me what I had paid for it in trade...I took them up on the deal...it had
about 385 miles on it for that entire year.

A G John Deere you say? Those fetch decent money especially when you're trying to find one. I had a G that I was restoring but I got stolen while at the sand blaster's place. I never did find out how it just disappeared......